Jenni Meno and Todd Sand: giving double pleasure in pairs skating.

Of the four disciplines in figure skating, pairs skating can at times be the most jarring for someone accustomed to watching dance. Packed with difficult, often dangerous-looking required moves, it allows less leeway for interpretive expression and can all too often look tough and circusy. The skill required for executing a tricky maneuver like the throw triple twist, in which the woman is launched into the. air and twists around three times before landing, is certainly impressive, but many of the mainstay moves of pairs skating command attention for the strength and daring involved, thus making it hard to view the program as a continuous whole. Compared to the individuality and creativity of ice dancing, pairs skating is usually less likely to give the viewer artistic satisfaction.

Certainly the sublime pair of Ekaterina Gordeyeva and the late Sergei Grinkov, Olympic champious in 1988 and 1994, were in a class by themselves when it came to pairs skating in which grace, elegance, and musicality captured one's attention as much as the skaters' technical skills. And our country's current leading pairs skaters, Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, have emerged as impressive musical interpreters and compelling performers as well as top-level competitors when it comes to technical feats.

Meno and Sand will certainly look back on 1995 as a memorable year both on and off the ice. Professionally, they had their most successful year, repeating as U.S. national champions and taking the bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships--the first time they had been on the podium in international competition. On the personal side, they became husband and wife on July 22, three and a half years after sparks first flew in the Olympic Village in Albertville, France.

Charming, attractive, and successful, the two have received considerable media attention for their off-ice partnership; their nuptials even landed them a spread in People. But it is their exceptionally elegant, musical, and technically accomplished skating that merits the spotlight. Their strikingly pure line throughout intricately choreographed programs helps them stand out among less refined pairs, and their intuitive communication and romantic glow enhance their presence on the ice.

Americans have never been as strong in pairs-skating competition as they have in the individual men's and women's events; the last time an American pair took the gold at the World Championships was in 1979, when Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner broke through the Soviet dominance. To find the previous occasion when Americans reached that pinnacle, you have to go back to 1950. Meno and Sand's presence on the podium last March as world bronze medalists was thus significant, announcing the arrival of serious American challengers. The couple hopes to equal or better their achievement when they compete at this month's World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta (March 20 to 24; for ABC Sports coverage of the event, see the "WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS ON TELEVISION").

Meno and Sand are a striking couple on the ice, making even the most daring technical feats look relaxed rather than straining for effects. Meno, twenty-five, is a petite redhead (even before she committed to pairs skating, she recalls, "People always told me I should do pairs because I'm small") with a mercurial presence. Tall and blond, Sand, thirty-two, provides a contrasting strength and solidity. Their unison moves-side by side double and triple jumps-reveal how closely attuned they are to each other, and how completely they share their response to the music.

Each was competing with a different partner in the early 1990s, but they knew e h other, since both trained at the same Southern California rink with the veteran pairs coach John Nicks, who had guided Babilonia and Gardner, as well as Jo Jo Starbuck and Ken Shelley, to their competitive successes. Meno, whose background also includes gymnastics, competed as a singles skater, reaching the senior national level before switching to pairs at nineteen. In 1991, she and her first partner, Scott Wendland, did well enough in their first national championship to qualify for the U.S. world team that year.

Sand, who started skating at age ten, competed in singles for several years as well. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, he always wanted to try pairs skating, but there was no coach in the immediate area. At twenty, he hooked up with Nicks and made the switch. "I really liked pairs right away," he says. "You can relate to the other person and be more creative." He and his first partner, Natasha Kuchiki, were moving up among the top U.S. pairs when he met Meno. He had met her at the airport the day, she arrived in California from Ohio to train with Nicks an pair up with Wendland. All four skaters were friends as they pursued their rigorous training at the same rink, but some crucial changes took place during the 1992 Winter Olympics. "We became a lot closer, and talked about a lot of things," Meno recalls. "We realized we really wanted to skate together." "That was a magical couple of weeks," adds Sand. "Our lives really changed. It was a turning point in our lives, professionally and personally, although we didn't realize, it at the time."

They still had the 1992 World Championships a few weeks later, where they finished the season with their respective partners. As soon as the pairs competition was over, they broke the news of their decision to their coach. "Both pairs told me they were splitting up and that Todd and Jenni would be skating together," says Nicks, who was himself a world pairs champion in 1953. "I've been in the business a long time and pride myself on knowing what's going on, but I sure didn't know what was going on in this case!"

We took a big risk at the time, but we really believed in what we were doing," Meno states. "We had the same ideas about music, choreography, and what we wanted our skating to look like." Notes Sand, "We both wanted to skate to classical music, develop our line, do all the technically difficult things you must do to become a top pairs skater but make it look beautiful at the same time."

Nicks echoes the couple: "Jenni and Todd went into the partnership with very similar goals and agreement about how to get there. They agreed on the types of music, the styles of choreography, and on how important it is to work not only on what we call content and elements"--the tricks, such as jumps, spins, lifts, death spirals, and throw twists--"but also on the way each move was done. They care about how a throw double axel should be entered, performed, and exited, with great attention to the music. We spend hours listening to the music, to find out what the music is telling us about where to put these various elements."

In 1993, their first year competing together, Meno and Sand placed second at the U.S. championships and a surprising fifth at the Worlds, a significant accomplishment not only for them but also for their fellow American pairs, because their place within the top five entitled the U.S. to field three pairs at the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is unusual for a pair to do so well so early in their partnership, but Meno and Sand brought maturity and experience to this new phase of their skating. Having skated in singles competitions also enhanced their skills as a pair. "In pairs skating today, you must be a strong singles skater. You have to be able to do triple jumps," Meno explains.

Their blossoming personal relationship also enhanced their skating. Notes Meno, "We're skating because we love to skate and we really love each other, and I think that really comes across when we're performing. It's very natural for us." Nicks agrees: "As they started training together, their personal relationship affected their skating much for the better. They came together emotionally as well as physically on the ice."

Their training is intense, and includes private ballet lessons twice a week for with a teacher whose classes are geared to their particular needs. Meno explains, "We do a little bit of barre work, a lot of stretching, and moves from our programs. She works with us on positioning the heads and arms." Both had studied ballet before and greatly value what it adds to their skating. "We really work hard on improving our line. I think that's just as important in skating as in ballet. That was one of the reasons we wanted to skate together."

Sand now appreciates what he learned in ballet classes he took at the age of twelve, as well as in their current sessions: "You develop good habits that you want to have on the ice, that carry over into our skating. It's subtle, not something that hits you in the face. After you work on a few details, you realize it looks different."

Meno finds that important preparation takes place both on and off the ice. "As a pairs skater, you spend more time training off the ice, whether it's ballet class, working on lifts, or working out in a gym. We go through our programs on the floor more than we would as singles skaters."

Preparing their competition programs--pairs skate both a technical program of two and a half minutes and a long program--is a long process. The musical selection is crucial; they then work with Nicks and choreographer Lea Ann Miller on the placement of the required elements and the overall choreography.

In 1994 Meno and Sand's long program used sections of classical orchestral music, primarily Tchaikovsky (excerpts from Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake). That program announced their romantic, flowing style and helped propel them to their first national championship and an impressive fifth-place finish at their first Olympics as a pair.

Last year, they broke with the usual skaters' choice of music that is broken up, sometimes jarringly, into brief segments of different pieces (usually in order to create a fast-slow-fast structure) and went with one continuous piece, an orchestral version of the aria "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot. "They wanted to do something that was different from most competitive programs," explains Miller, who skated with John Curry's company in the 1980s and now choreographs for many professional skaters and the Stars on Ice tour. "They trusted me and gave me lots of freedom. They're both so musical, and they don't just go from trick to trick as some skaters do. They really crave steps. They have a musical sense you can't teach, and their bodies are so well matched. They push themselves, and have that desire to be different, and we got very exciting results. It's very unusual for a pair to have this kind of success in such a short time."

Miller also choreographed a new short program set to Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu for the 1996 competitions. Meno and Sand's long program will be an enhanced version of "Nessun donna" with new costumes. "We love that program, and we feel we can make it even better. We've made minor adjustments in the choreography," says Sand. "We feel very confident about our technical elements, so now we can concentrate even more on other aspects of our skating," adds Meno.

Their enthusiasm for skating and deep feelings for each other come through when they are on the ice, and have combined with their growing technical skills to impress judges and delight audiences when they tour the country for several months each spring and summer. They may continue in the competitive arena through the 1998 Olympics; whenever they are ready, Miller feels that they have a great future ahead of them in the rapidly expanding world of professional skating.

"You can't do something at this level unless you really love it," asserts Sand. "We feel really fortunate to be able to do this together."

RELATED ARTICLE: WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS ON TELEVISION

ABC-TV WILL TELECAST THE WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIP THIS MONTH AND IN APRIL ON THESE DATES (ALL TIMES GIVEN ARE EASTERN STANDARD TIME):

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